When Is the Next CPI Release?

What Time Does CPI Come Out?

8:30am Eastern, every time. The BLS releases it to the second and futures have moved before the headline finishes loading on your screen. In UK time that is 1:30pm for every remaining 2026 date.

Worth knowing: the US and the UK change their clocks on different Sundays, so for a few weeks in March and one week at the end of October the gap is four hours instead of five. The March 11 print this year landed at 12:30pm London for that reason, and the October 28 Fed decision falls inside the autumn window. The table below computes the London time for each date rather than assuming a fixed offset.

Why This One Matters

The Fed meets four days after this print, on September 15 and 16, and the debate going in is whether to hike, which is a strange sentence to write in 2026 but here we are. Headline inflation was 3.4% in July, energy is still up 14.7% over twelve months after the spring oil shock, and three officials voted for a hike at the July meeting. A hot August number makes the hawks’ case for them. A cool one buys the committee room, and the market will have priced either outcome before you finish reading the headline.

The full setup, the nowcast and the levels that matter are in the August CPI preview, updated through the print. Reviewed September 7, 2026.

How to Read the Print in 30 Seconds

Two numbers matter: headline (everything) and core (food and energy stripped out). Each comes as month-on-month and year-on-year. The market trades the gap between the number and the consensus, so a 0.3% print that was expected at 0.3% is a nothing, and a 0.3% that was expected at 0.2% is a red morning for anything rate-sensitive. Hot means hotter than expected: yields up, dollar up, growth stocks and gold usually down. Cool is the reverse. When headline and core disagree, core decides the second move, because core is what the Fed actually watches.

Two years of prints against consensus, and what the S&P 500 did on each of those mornings, are on the economic calendar.

What the Market Does at 8:30

Everything up to 8:29 is theatre. The number hits at 8:30:00, futures move inside a second, and by the time a broker app refreshes the first move is done. Anyone trading it is trading the second move, the one that happens when everyone decides whether the first one was right.

Full 2026 CPI Release Schedule

Every date on the BLS 2026 calendar, which opens with the December 2025 release. Dates already passed are greyed; the next one is marked.

The BLS has not published its 2027 schedule yet. It usually appears in the second half of the year and we will add the dates the day it does. We do not guess dates.

Common Questions

What time is the CPI report released?

8:30am Eastern Time on the scheduled day, every month, to the second.

How often does CPI come out?

Once a month, usually in the second week, covering the previous month’s prices.

When is the CPI release after this one?

Wednesday, October 14, 2026, covering September 2026.

Where does the number come from?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics. The release itself is short and worth reading before anyone’s take on it, including ours.

What is the difference between CPI and PCE?

CPI is the BLS basket and the one that hits the headlines. PCE is the BEA basket and the one the Fed targets. They usually move together, but the weights differ, which is why they can disagree in any given month.

Does the stock market react to CPI?

Within seconds, first through futures and Treasuries, then through everything rate-sensitive once the cash market opens an hour later.